694 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



some data toward a solution. Why the Old World apes, when differ- 

 entiated, did not come to the land of their earlier ancestry, is readily 

 explained by the then intervening oceans, which likewise were a bar- 

 rier to the return of the horse and rhinoceros. 



Man, however, came doubtless first across Behring's Straits ; and 

 at his advent became part of our fauna, as a mammal and primate. 

 In these relations alone it is my purpose here to treat him. The evi- 

 dence, as it stands to-day, although not conclusive, seems to place the 

 first appearance of man in this country in the Pliocene, and the best 

 proof of this has been found on the Pacific coast. During several 

 visits to that region, many facts were brought to my knowledge which 

 render this more than probable. Man at this time was a savage, and 

 was doubtless forced by the great volcanic outbreaks to continue his 

 migration. This was at first to the south, since mountain-chains were 

 barriers on the east. As the native horses of America were now all 

 extinct, and as the early man did not bring the Old World animal 

 with him, his migrations were slow. I believe, moreover, that his 

 slow progress toward civilization was in no small degree due to this 

 same cause, the absence of the horse. 



It is far from my intention to add to the many theories extant in 

 regard to the early civilizations in this country, and their connections 

 with the primitive inhabitants, or the later Indians ; but two or three 

 facts have recently come to my knowledge which I think worth men- 

 tioning in this connection. On the Columbia River, I have found 

 evidence of the former existence of inhabitants much superior to the 

 Indians at present there, and of which no tradition remains. Among 

 many stone carvings which I saw there, were a number of heads 

 which so strongly resemble those of apes that the likeness at once 

 suggests itself. Whence came these sculptures, and by whom were 

 they made ? Another fact that has interested me very much is the 

 strong resemblance between the skulls of the typical mound-builders 

 of the Mississippi Valley and those of the Pueblo Indians. I had long 

 been familiar with the former; and, when I recently saw the latter, it 

 required the positive assurance of a friend, who had himself collected 

 them in New Mexico, to convince me that they were not from the 

 mounds. A third fact, and I leave man to the archaeologists, on 

 whose province I am even now trenching. In a large collection of 

 mound-builders' pottery, over a thousand specimens, which I have 

 recently examined with some care, I found many pieces of elaborate 

 workmanship so nearly like the ancient water-jars from Peru, that no 

 one could fairly doubt that some intercourse had taken place between 

 the widely-separated people that made them. 



The oldest known remains of man on this continent differ in no im- 

 portant characters from the bones of the typical Indian, although in 

 some minor details they indicate a much more primitive race. These 

 early remains, some of which are true fossils, resemble much more 



